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These are the user uploaded subtitles that are being translated: 1 00:00:14,842 --> 00:00:17,782 Reporters, documentarian people, 2 00:00:17,879 --> 00:00:21,019 newspapers, book writers, tourists 3 00:00:21,124 --> 00:00:24,334 come from all over the world to see Skidmore, Missouri 4 00:00:24,438 --> 00:00:26,888 and where Kenneth Rex McElroy 5 00:00:26,992 --> 00:00:29,512 was shot down on the streets. 6 00:00:31,341 --> 00:00:33,271 It happened 40 years ago. 7 00:00:33,378 --> 00:00:34,688 People are still coming. 8 00:00:34,793 --> 00:00:37,383 People are still asking questions. 9 00:00:39,591 --> 00:00:42,531 Everybody wants to know why or how 10 00:00:42,628 --> 00:00:44,838 a town can keep quiet for 40 years, 11 00:00:44,941 --> 00:00:48,701 and not naming the people they-- that shot him. 12 00:00:50,326 --> 00:00:52,776 Does anybody know what happened? 13 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:56,090 Does anybody really know what happened? 14 00:01:53,734 --> 00:01:57,704 We had to be violent to settle this country. 15 00:01:59,705 --> 00:02:02,085 This was a very wild country. 16 00:02:02,191 --> 00:02:06,711 We still have places in this country that are totally wild. 17 00:02:08,852 --> 00:02:12,342 Sometimes violence is necessary. 18 00:02:13,340 --> 00:02:17,620 In Skidmore, we just had a bad guy. 19 00:02:21,313 --> 00:02:28,083 The story of Skidmore was more like the Old West. 20 00:02:28,182 --> 00:02:32,982 They call him a bully, a big guy. A bully. 21 00:02:33,083 --> 00:02:37,853 So these others here in town got together and killed the man. 22 00:02:40,367 --> 00:02:45,607 His death created a story that went on and on and on. 23 00:02:45,717 --> 00:02:47,617 You can't hold a secret like that 24 00:02:47,719 --> 00:02:50,889 and not have it affect the psyche of the town. 25 00:02:52,896 --> 00:02:54,826 It's still such a secret. 26 00:02:54,933 --> 00:02:57,383 I know that there are people who know 27 00:02:57,487 --> 00:02:59,137 who shot Ken McElroy. 28 00:02:59,248 --> 00:03:01,908 But, in all those years, 29 00:03:02,009 --> 00:03:04,249 no one has ever talked. 30 00:03:04,356 --> 00:03:06,566 They've shaken the tree and shaken the tree, 31 00:03:06,669 --> 00:03:09,219 and nothing has fallen out. 32 00:03:10,293 --> 00:03:12,193 People don't understand 33 00:03:12,295 --> 00:03:15,055 what drove a whole town to the point 34 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:19,960 where they felt like they had no other choice. 35 00:03:20,061 --> 00:03:22,621 Skidmore's secret. Skidmore, Missouri. 36 00:03:22,719 --> 00:03:26,069 It is said that there are no secrets in a small town, but in Skidmore, 37 00:03:26,171 --> 00:03:29,591 those who know who killed Ken Rex McElroy, won't say. 38 00:03:29,692 --> 00:03:33,872 Ken McElroy terrorized the town of Skidmore, Missouri for more than ten years. 39 00:03:33,972 --> 00:03:35,942 The locals called him "Bad Dog." 40 00:03:36,043 --> 00:03:38,673 He raped a 13-year-old girl and then married her, 41 00:03:38,770 --> 00:03:40,390 so she couldn't testify against him. 42 00:03:40,496 --> 00:03:42,216 He set fire to her parents' barn. 43 00:03:42,325 --> 00:03:44,115 He murdered a man in cold blood. 44 00:03:44,224 --> 00:03:45,714 Then, in broad daylight, 45 00:03:45,811 --> 00:03:47,741 with more than 45 people watching, 46 00:03:47,848 --> 00:03:50,398 Ken McElroy was gunned down and killed. 47 00:03:50,506 --> 00:03:52,056 But nobody looked up, 48 00:03:52,162 --> 00:03:53,962 until the shooting stopped. 49 00:03:54,061 --> 00:03:55,861 Nobody saw a thing, 50 00:03:55,959 --> 00:03:58,029 and nobody did anything. 51 00:03:58,134 --> 00:04:00,594 He's held a gun to my family, to my mom, 52 00:04:00,688 --> 00:04:02,588 to my brother and me. 53 00:04:02,690 --> 00:04:05,000 He tried staring you down. He tried making you crawl. 54 00:04:05,106 --> 00:04:08,456 A lot of reporters have come to Skidmore in the past five months, 55 00:04:08,558 --> 00:04:10,658 and people here are getting sick of them. 56 00:04:10,767 --> 00:04:12,867 Tired of having their town portrayed as some 57 00:04:12,976 --> 00:04:15,736 vigilante village, hiding a dark secret. 58 00:04:15,841 --> 00:04:17,771 Who pulled the trigger? 59 00:04:17,878 --> 00:04:18,878 I don't know. 60 00:04:18,982 --> 00:04:20,742 I couldn't tell you. 61 00:04:20,846 --> 00:04:22,876 Would you turn in the person who did it? 62 00:04:22,986 --> 00:04:24,466 No. 63 00:04:24,574 --> 00:04:26,204 Would you, preacher? 64 00:04:26,300 --> 00:04:28,300 I wouldn't. 65 00:04:28,406 --> 00:04:29,916 If they catch somebody, 66 00:04:30,028 --> 00:04:32,378 and he's tried, and he's found guilty, 67 00:04:32,479 --> 00:04:35,589 would you feel that justice has been done? 68 00:04:35,689 --> 00:04:36,929 No. 69 00:04:37,035 --> 00:04:40,415 No, because it was the whole town. 70 00:04:45,319 --> 00:04:47,839 That was the one mistake that they made 71 00:04:47,942 --> 00:04:50,432 was that they didn't kill his wife. 72 00:04:50,531 --> 00:04:52,881 I would have killed his wife. 73 00:04:52,982 --> 00:04:56,882 I probably would have ambushed him in his driveway. 74 00:04:58,056 --> 00:05:00,576 I-- I'd have waited for him in the cornfield 75 00:05:00,679 --> 00:05:02,749 and let him have it in his driveway. 76 00:05:02,854 --> 00:05:05,624 And then I'd have set his house on fire. 77 00:05:06,789 --> 00:05:08,649 I'd have burned everything. 78 00:05:09,999 --> 00:05:11,929 When we moved here, 79 00:05:12,035 --> 00:05:13,585 it was a movin' town. 80 00:05:13,692 --> 00:05:15,322 It was a hoppin' town. 81 00:05:15,418 --> 00:05:18,078 There were three gas stations, 82 00:05:18,179 --> 00:05:21,319 there was a convenience store up on the corner. 83 00:05:21,424 --> 00:05:23,984 The bank was catty-corner to that gas station. 84 00:05:26,947 --> 00:05:28,847 You know, after the McElroy shooting, 85 00:05:28,949 --> 00:05:31,019 everything pretty well folded up. 86 00:05:31,123 --> 00:05:34,263 And it was a shame. You know, it's a shame. 87 00:05:34,368 --> 00:05:36,608 It killed the town. 88 00:05:36,715 --> 00:05:39,885 It did, it poisoned everybody's life. 89 00:05:42,100 --> 00:05:44,620 Skidmore is home. 90 00:05:46,760 --> 00:05:48,520 I'm fifth-generation, here, 91 00:05:48,624 --> 00:05:50,524 of farmers. 92 00:05:50,626 --> 00:05:52,936 Working the land, 93 00:05:53,042 --> 00:05:55,772 following in my father's footsteps. 94 00:05:57,702 --> 00:06:00,532 - What're you doing, young man? - Hanging out. 95 00:06:00,636 --> 00:06:02,776 - Hanging out? - How are you, Ken? 96 00:06:02,879 --> 00:06:04,879 - All right. How's Kurt? - Doing good. 97 00:06:04,985 --> 00:06:07,295 When you're put into a situation 98 00:06:07,401 --> 00:06:09,781 that you're not used to being in, 99 00:06:11,509 --> 00:06:14,549 you don't know what you're going to do. 100 00:06:16,410 --> 00:06:17,830 Countless times, 101 00:06:17,929 --> 00:06:19,969 the law enforcement had been called 102 00:06:20,069 --> 00:06:21,139 for some help. 103 00:06:21,242 --> 00:06:23,692 Nothing, nothing, nothing. 104 00:06:23,797 --> 00:06:26,137 So it comes to a point 105 00:06:26,247 --> 00:06:28,177 where the people feel, 106 00:06:28,284 --> 00:06:30,084 well, it's you or me. 107 00:06:31,218 --> 00:06:32,738 Well, 41 years ago, 108 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:35,020 we moved here-- I think it's been about 41. 109 00:06:35,118 --> 00:06:38,498 I didn't want to come to Skidmore, 110 00:06:38,605 --> 00:06:42,015 but my husband got a job. 111 00:06:42,125 --> 00:06:45,435 And from there on, that's... that's when things 112 00:06:45,543 --> 00:06:47,513 really, you know, 113 00:06:47,614 --> 00:06:49,134 was happening. 114 00:06:57,865 --> 00:06:59,625 My husband was a smoker, 115 00:06:59,729 --> 00:07:02,179 and he was sitting out in the garage, 116 00:07:02,283 --> 00:07:04,323 fairly early that morning 117 00:07:04,424 --> 00:07:06,184 He was out there smoking, and I said, 118 00:07:06,287 --> 00:07:08,257 "Leland, did you hear?" 119 00:07:10,153 --> 00:07:14,093 And I said, "Sounds like a big firecracker or something." 120 00:07:17,160 --> 00:07:21,510 He said, "That wasn't no firecracker, that was a gunshot." 121 00:07:23,719 --> 00:07:25,889 So my husband went up to town, 122 00:07:25,997 --> 00:07:29,207 and when he come back, he was pretty well shook up. 123 00:07:29,310 --> 00:07:30,690 He said, "Call the kids 124 00:07:30,795 --> 00:07:33,415 and don't let them be out on the street or nothing 125 00:07:33,522 --> 00:07:35,972 because there's a whole mess up there. 126 00:07:36,076 --> 00:07:38,346 And McElroy is sitting in the truck 127 00:07:38,458 --> 00:07:39,908 with his head shot off 128 00:07:40,011 --> 00:07:42,701 and blood running down the highway." 129 00:07:42,807 --> 00:07:45,397 We were working away at the store. 130 00:07:45,499 --> 00:07:47,709 And Mom had gone to the bank. 131 00:07:47,812 --> 00:07:49,682 And then I heard a shot, and I told my dad-- 132 00:07:49,779 --> 00:07:51,679 He was back there at the meat case. 133 00:07:51,781 --> 00:07:53,441 I go, "Dad, he's shooting somebody." 134 00:07:53,542 --> 00:07:56,582 And then I looked again 'cause I saw his head go forward. 135 00:07:56,683 --> 00:07:58,963 I go, "No, they shot him." 136 00:07:59,064 --> 00:08:02,034 I was working at the farm. 137 00:08:02,136 --> 00:08:04,616 My dad came out to the field, 138 00:08:04,725 --> 00:08:06,485 stopped me in the tractor. 139 00:08:06,589 --> 00:08:08,489 Looked up, and he said, 140 00:08:08,591 --> 00:08:10,971 "Well, they blew him away." 141 00:08:12,492 --> 00:08:13,672 I said, "What?" 142 00:08:13,769 --> 00:08:16,249 He said, "They shot Ken Rex." 143 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:19,360 I thought, "Wow." 144 00:08:19,464 --> 00:08:21,054 McElroy came into town, 145 00:08:21,155 --> 00:08:23,085 parked in front of the bar, walked into the bar. 146 00:08:23,192 --> 00:08:25,402 The guys who were inside said, "You know, 147 00:08:25,505 --> 00:08:27,775 you need to get the hell out of town right now." 148 00:08:27,886 --> 00:08:30,226 And he went out and got in his truck, 149 00:08:30,337 --> 00:08:34,437 and then they opened up on him from behind. 150 00:08:34,548 --> 00:08:37,828 His wife, she was sitting in the truck with him. 151 00:08:37,931 --> 00:08:40,071 She sat right there and seen his head blowed off. 152 00:08:40,174 --> 00:08:42,254 And they were shooting right around her. 153 00:08:42,349 --> 00:08:46,839 We left the D&G and went to our pickup. 154 00:08:46,940 --> 00:08:49,360 And as soon as we walked out the door, 155 00:08:49,459 --> 00:08:52,639 everybody else walked out the door behind us. 156 00:08:52,739 --> 00:08:56,539 And they gathered around on my side over here, 157 00:08:56,639 --> 00:08:59,469 on my passenger side of the truck. 158 00:08:59,573 --> 00:09:03,893 I seen a man go across the street, go to his pickup, 159 00:09:03,991 --> 00:09:07,481 take the gun out, and I seen him shoot it. 160 00:09:11,343 --> 00:09:15,663 When he got shot, his foot froze on the gas pedal, 161 00:09:15,762 --> 00:09:21,082 so the engine was going maxed out, and it started smoking. 162 00:09:29,154 --> 00:09:34,094 Finally, the engine blew, and then it was just silence. 163 00:09:36,886 --> 00:09:39,026 The ambulance had pulled across the street, 164 00:09:39,130 --> 00:09:42,480 and I saw the ambulance drivers go from McElroy's pickup, 165 00:09:42,582 --> 00:09:46,032 back to the ambulance, and back again, with some equipment. 166 00:09:46,137 --> 00:09:48,417 And I told whatever lady was standing there beside me, 167 00:09:48,518 --> 00:09:52,038 if he's still alive, they're just gonna have to shoot him again 168 00:09:52,143 --> 00:09:54,633 because he'll kill all those people. 169 00:09:57,044 --> 00:09:58,744 I was in the pickup, 170 00:09:58,839 --> 00:10:01,049 and this man told me to stay in there, 171 00:10:01,152 --> 00:10:03,092 or they was gonna shoot me too. 172 00:10:03,188 --> 00:10:05,668 A couple of guys helped, uh, Trena out of here, 173 00:10:05,777 --> 00:10:10,467 she'd wet her pants, and walked her up to the top of the hill 174 00:10:10,575 --> 00:10:12,885 to get her out of harm's way. 175 00:10:14,234 --> 00:10:16,654 I still thought they was going to kill me 176 00:10:16,754 --> 00:10:18,624 when they took me up to the bank 177 00:10:18,721 --> 00:10:22,311 because he told me there was women up here to take care of me. 178 00:10:22,414 --> 00:10:25,284 Of course, there was a little blood and a few teeth 179 00:10:25,383 --> 00:10:27,183 and stuff laying around. 180 00:10:27,281 --> 00:10:31,151 My brother went around and picked up his teeth. 181 00:10:33,460 --> 00:10:36,810 Then the people started coming out of the pool hall, and... 182 00:10:38,016 --> 00:10:39,806 everybody left town. 183 00:10:41,710 --> 00:10:43,370 Everybody cleared the town. 184 00:10:43,470 --> 00:10:46,300 Everybody was in their houses and stuff. 185 00:10:46,404 --> 00:10:48,064 Nobody was up there on that street. 186 00:10:48,164 --> 00:10:51,064 That truck was just sitting there. 187 00:10:54,861 --> 00:11:00,421 I went across the street to make sure there was a sheet up over his head. 188 00:11:00,521 --> 00:11:03,421 And, of course, then everybody went back about their business. 189 00:11:03,524 --> 00:11:07,914 And then, somebody stopped, opened the door of the store and said, 190 00:11:08,012 --> 00:11:13,432 "It's over. You can sleep tonight. Now just stand behind us." 191 00:11:26,133 --> 00:11:28,763 I was glad he was dead. 192 00:11:30,172 --> 00:11:34,312 Killing him was the only way it was going to stop. 193 00:11:34,417 --> 00:11:37,137 People were afraid of Ken Rex. 194 00:11:37,248 --> 00:11:40,078 They knew he would shoot you. 195 00:11:40,182 --> 00:11:43,942 He was definitely a bully. 196 00:11:44,048 --> 00:11:47,598 If somebody crossed him, he'd burn their house down. 197 00:11:47,707 --> 00:11:49,777 They had a whole problem with that. 198 00:11:51,538 --> 00:11:54,298 He was a monster. 199 00:11:54,403 --> 00:11:56,683 Unlike the fish that you caught, 200 00:11:56,785 --> 00:12:01,025 it passes hands and gradually gets bigger as the story's told. 201 00:12:01,134 --> 00:12:04,314 Ken Rex was already there. 202 00:12:04,413 --> 00:12:08,113 He must have been about 6'2 " or 6'3". 203 00:12:08,210 --> 00:12:11,180 Jet-black hair, long sideburns. 204 00:12:11,282 --> 00:12:14,322 Steely blue eyes. He just stared right through you. 205 00:12:14,423 --> 00:12:16,943 Really, really cold eyes. 206 00:12:17,046 --> 00:12:19,256 He could make my legs turn to Jell-O. 207 00:12:21,499 --> 00:12:24,919 He was picking on people who were smaller than he was. 208 00:12:25,020 --> 00:12:27,190 He was picking on women. 209 00:12:27,298 --> 00:12:30,088 He probably picked on kids. 210 00:12:31,578 --> 00:12:33,958 He was a career criminal. 211 00:12:35,478 --> 00:12:38,478 We just knew he was a bad man. 212 00:12:38,585 --> 00:12:43,065 You never heard of Ken Rex getting in a fist fight. 213 00:12:43,176 --> 00:12:45,416 It always had to do with a gun. 214 00:12:45,523 --> 00:12:48,663 Romaine Henry remembers when McElroy shot him 215 00:12:48,768 --> 00:12:50,938 and says X-rays show his stomach 216 00:12:51,046 --> 00:12:54,946 still has the buckshot in it from the incident, more than a decade ago. 217 00:12:55,050 --> 00:12:58,430 One of the local farmers, riding in the pickup truck, 218 00:12:58,536 --> 00:13:01,876 shoots him in the stomach with a shotgun. 219 00:13:01,988 --> 00:13:04,228 Excuse me? 220 00:13:06,578 --> 00:13:08,238 One of the boys come out and said 221 00:13:08,339 --> 00:13:11,099 that he heard somebody shooting down the road. 222 00:13:11,204 --> 00:13:16,524 When I got pretty close, well, I recognized it was Ken McElroy. 223 00:13:16,623 --> 00:13:22,943 And then next thing I knew, I was looking right down the barrel of that shotgun. 224 00:13:23,043 --> 00:13:25,153 He said that I was a dirty SOB 225 00:13:25,252 --> 00:13:28,462 and had been over to his place in a white Pontiac. 226 00:13:30,326 --> 00:13:31,906 I don't even have a car like that. 227 00:13:32,018 --> 00:13:34,808 And he said, "Well, you're a lying SOB," 228 00:13:34,917 --> 00:13:36,567 and pulled the trigger. 229 00:13:36,677 --> 00:13:38,467 And when they brought him into the hospital, 230 00:13:38,576 --> 00:13:40,336 just like, they went, 231 00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:44,860 Romaine Henry's been shot in the stomach. We think McElroy got him. 232 00:13:44,962 --> 00:13:47,072 And that was all over the hospital. 233 00:13:47,171 --> 00:13:51,071 Of course, it laid my flesh all open and blew my flesh into this door here. 234 00:13:51,175 --> 00:13:54,065 And I just figured I was as good as dead. 235 00:13:54,178 --> 00:13:56,208 Yet, when he went to court, 236 00:13:56,318 --> 00:13:59,418 he had two witnesses said he was somewhere else. 237 00:14:02,358 --> 00:14:05,808 McElroy had two dozen felony charges over the years. 238 00:14:05,914 --> 00:14:09,404 Cattle rustling, hog rustling, molesting a child, 239 00:14:09,503 --> 00:14:14,273 assault with intent to kill, burglary, theft and on and on. 240 00:14:14,370 --> 00:14:18,200 The lawyer who got him out of those scrapes with the law 241 00:14:18,305 --> 00:14:20,685 was Richard McFadin of Kansas City. 242 00:14:20,790 --> 00:14:23,900 I looked at this fella, who was huge. 243 00:14:24,001 --> 00:14:28,871 I had a pair of old jeans on and an old shirt. And I said, "Well, 244 00:14:28,971 --> 00:14:32,871 I don't think that you probably could afford to hire me. I'm kind of expensive. 245 00:14:32,975 --> 00:14:36,695 And he said, "Well, let me be the judge of that, counselor." 246 00:14:36,806 --> 00:14:41,666 He got his load of bills and put the money on the table, 247 00:14:41,777 --> 00:14:43,777 and I have to tell you, it was kind of humorous, 248 00:14:43,883 --> 00:14:50,613 I said, "Mr. Ken... McElroy, sir, you hired yourself a lawyer." 249 00:14:50,717 --> 00:14:55,267 McFadin, he was what we called a nickel-slick lawyer, 250 00:14:55,377 --> 00:14:58,377 fast talker, worked for cash... 251 00:14:58,483 --> 00:15:02,693 The consensus seems to be that whoever killed him did Skidmore a favor. 252 00:15:02,798 --> 00:15:07,458 And you know, that disturbs me. I'm appalled by that. 253 00:15:07,561 --> 00:15:11,221 There have been all kinds of articles that call him 254 00:15:11,324 --> 00:15:13,294 "The Brute of Nodaway County," 255 00:15:13,395 --> 00:15:15,535 "The Bully of Nodaway County." 256 00:15:15,638 --> 00:15:20,818 The point is, as bad as allegedly he was, and I'm not saying he was, 257 00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:24,230 what they did was worse than anything they could say about him. 258 00:15:24,337 --> 00:15:26,617 They went outside that system of justice, 259 00:15:26,718 --> 00:15:29,268 and they took the law in their own hands, in my opinion, 260 00:15:29,376 --> 00:15:32,206 and they decided they were going to get rid of him. 261 00:15:41,147 --> 00:15:43,907 We just pulled onto Missouri 113, 262 00:15:44,012 --> 00:15:47,982 and I'm going to stop in front of the D&G Tavern, 263 00:15:48,085 --> 00:15:50,945 where Ken Rex was shot dead. 264 00:15:52,468 --> 00:15:55,608 I was the first police officer dispatched over here. 265 00:15:57,301 --> 00:16:02,621 Pretty much, I'm parked where Ken Rex's truck was at, on the day I saw it. 266 00:16:03,997 --> 00:16:05,897 I knew this was significant. 267 00:16:05,999 --> 00:16:08,799 Danny asked us-- He was the sheriff, he was a friend of mine. 268 00:16:08,898 --> 00:16:12,938 Good guy, very courageous man, Vietnam combat vet. 269 00:16:13,041 --> 00:16:15,601 He was-- He was visibly upset. 270 00:16:15,698 --> 00:16:18,488 Very, very upset that this had happened. 271 00:16:18,598 --> 00:16:21,978 Sheriff, what kind of calls did you get on McElroy? 272 00:16:22,084 --> 00:16:25,334 Did you get a sense that he was intimidating those people? 273 00:16:25,432 --> 00:16:30,992 I think that calls for an opinion, and I don't want to give one. 274 00:16:31,093 --> 00:16:34,893 I'd had people discuss it with me, dealing with McElroy. 275 00:16:34,994 --> 00:16:39,724 'Cause they wanted me to just take the badge and go shoot him. 276 00:16:39,826 --> 00:16:42,726 You know. We're going to make you our policeman, 277 00:16:42,829 --> 00:16:46,209 you're gonna be the town marshal, have at it. 278 00:16:46,315 --> 00:16:50,555 And I just-- It didn't fit my plan. 279 00:16:53,667 --> 00:16:56,567 I was out in Vegas and saw it in the newspaper, 280 00:16:56,670 --> 00:16:59,740 and I saw his picture on the newspaper. 281 00:16:59,846 --> 00:17:02,116 And, when they asked the sheriff, 282 00:17:02,228 --> 00:17:05,508 what about this Vietnam veteran out here? 283 00:17:05,610 --> 00:17:10,310 Uh, the sheriff said, "No, I know it wasn't Brett." 284 00:17:10,408 --> 00:17:15,378 If it was Brett, there'd have been a hole right between McElroy's eyes." 285 00:17:18,209 --> 00:17:22,209 People know that, if they push us the wrong direction, 286 00:17:22,317 --> 00:17:24,937 it's gonna come back in lead. 287 00:17:25,044 --> 00:17:29,814 There's a lot of people that seen it, 50 or 60. 288 00:17:29,910 --> 00:17:32,640 People's afraid to say what they seen 'cause they're afraid 289 00:17:32,741 --> 00:17:35,501 what's gonna happen to them and their family. 290 00:17:37,849 --> 00:17:40,959 And that's kind of what small towns do. 291 00:17:41,060 --> 00:17:47,240 They just kind of band together and do what's best for the town. 292 00:17:47,342 --> 00:17:54,212 In the aftermath of that, you have to use all the resources at your disposal. 293 00:17:54,314 --> 00:17:57,424 Well, in Skidmore, they're non-existent. 294 00:17:57,524 --> 00:18:02,324 Nobody in the town would even give a name. 295 00:18:05,567 --> 00:18:09,537 After the murder, a task force was put together 296 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:13,130 of area and regional law enforcement, 297 00:18:15,266 --> 00:18:18,366 And they engaged the case. 298 00:18:24,275 --> 00:18:28,345 They investigated, they talked to witnesses. 299 00:18:33,560 --> 00:18:36,810 And they were coming up empty. 300 00:18:45,227 --> 00:18:49,127 All of a sudden, in newsrooms across the country, 301 00:18:49,231 --> 00:18:50,821 people were looking at maps, 302 00:18:50,922 --> 00:18:54,692 trying to determine where Skidmore, Missouri was. 303 00:18:54,788 --> 00:18:58,968 We had a reporter from theLondon Times 304 00:18:59,068 --> 00:19:02,758 stop by our newsroom and politely ask 305 00:19:02,865 --> 00:19:06,935 to see our dossier on the Ken Rex shooting. 306 00:19:07,042 --> 00:19:09,602 Tonight, Gary Wilson reports on a northwest Missouri town 307 00:19:09,700 --> 00:19:11,740 on the threshold of the national spotlight. 308 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:16,640 And I think that's kind of when it dawned on people here 309 00:19:16,741 --> 00:19:19,121 that this was something big. 310 00:19:19,227 --> 00:19:21,507 This was something so unusual, 311 00:19:21,608 --> 00:19:25,468 that it captured the attention of media outlets all over the world. 312 00:19:25,578 --> 00:19:29,168 Reporting live from Skidmore, Missouri, Tracy Toft, Action 4 News at five. 313 00:19:29,271 --> 00:19:34,761 As more and more media outlets reported on this, 314 00:19:34,863 --> 00:19:36,833 the bigger and bigger the story got. 315 00:19:48,946 --> 00:19:53,946 I was teaching at the University of Texas that summer. 316 00:19:55,435 --> 00:19:57,225 And I'm sitting there having my coffee, 317 00:19:57,334 --> 00:20:00,034 and all of sudden, Skidmore, Missouri comes on the news. 318 00:20:00,129 --> 00:20:04,339 And they tell me about the murder of Ken Rex McElroy. 319 00:20:07,689 --> 00:20:09,999 Right away, I knew who the man was. 320 00:20:10,105 --> 00:20:13,755 My thought was, well, Dad won't lose any more pigs. 321 00:20:18,182 --> 00:20:23,332 Was Skidmore more violent than other communities? 322 00:20:23,429 --> 00:20:26,979 I hate to say they're more violent, 323 00:20:27,087 --> 00:20:30,437 but it seems like, yes. 324 00:20:30,539 --> 00:20:33,749 There was a culture of violence in the area. 325 00:20:33,853 --> 00:20:35,923 McElroy, who was known as the town bully, 326 00:20:36,027 --> 00:20:38,507 was killed, while dozens of people watched. 327 00:20:38,616 --> 00:20:43,346 Investigation into the vigilante-style slaying of Ken Rex McElroy... 328 00:20:43,449 --> 00:20:46,209 Because it was so unusual, 329 00:20:46,314 --> 00:20:49,664 because it was so violent... 330 00:20:49,765 --> 00:20:51,765 Camera roll 27, take 55... 331 00:20:51,871 --> 00:20:55,391 ...CBS sent a crew in to do a story. 332 00:20:55,495 --> 00:21:00,045 Some hot-shot reporter that, I'm sure, thinks he's going to break the case... 333 00:21:00,155 --> 00:21:03,465 There's more to Ken Rex McElroy versus the town of Skidmore 334 00:21:03,572 --> 00:21:07,402 than just the story of a local bully and frightened townspeople. 335 00:21:07,507 --> 00:21:13,337 It's not gonna happen. Skidmore will never give up who they think did it. 336 00:21:13,444 --> 00:21:17,314 There was a lot of angry people, townspeople, 337 00:21:17,414 --> 00:21:20,764 that didn't want reporters here. 338 00:21:20,865 --> 00:21:22,865 But I didn't mind talking to them. 339 00:21:22,971 --> 00:21:26,531 I mean, it happened, you got to deal with it. 340 00:21:26,630 --> 00:21:28,670 If your rights are violated to the point 341 00:21:28,770 --> 00:21:31,640 that you fear your life or your friend or family's life, 342 00:21:31,738 --> 00:21:38,538 then you're gonna take somebody else's. That's basic law of nature. 343 00:21:38,642 --> 00:21:44,682 Having so much of a spotlight, on this tiny, tiny, little town, 344 00:21:44,786 --> 00:21:46,646 it had to be traumatic. 345 00:21:46,753 --> 00:21:49,033 He was just a bully, 346 00:21:49,135 --> 00:21:51,585 had everyone scared to death, all over the county. 347 00:21:51,689 --> 00:21:53,549 He was pretty vicious. He shot this man 348 00:21:53,657 --> 00:21:55,997 at the store over a two-cent piece of gum. 349 00:21:56,107 --> 00:21:58,557 Richard Bennett thinks everyone knows who did it. 350 00:21:58,662 --> 00:22:00,662 Far as I'm concerned, everybody in this town is guilty. 351 00:22:00,767 --> 00:22:02,977 I am scared that they will do the same to us 352 00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:04,670 that they did to McElroy. 353 00:22:04,771 --> 00:22:06,741 If you open your mouth too much. 354 00:22:06,842 --> 00:22:10,092 And it's not right. One murder is not right. 355 00:22:10,190 --> 00:22:11,640 They was proud they did it. 356 00:22:11,744 --> 00:22:13,954 That's how they felt, a lot of them. 357 00:22:14,056 --> 00:22:16,746 They was proud they had killed him. 358 00:22:16,852 --> 00:22:20,992 Nobody deserves to be murdered. 359 00:22:21,098 --> 00:22:22,168 However, 360 00:22:22,271 --> 00:22:24,411 something had to be done, 361 00:22:24,515 --> 00:22:28,415 for the safety of this community. 362 00:22:28,519 --> 00:22:30,559 If everything else failed, 363 00:22:30,659 --> 00:22:34,389 then the murder was the answer. 364 00:22:36,078 --> 00:22:39,768 Some of them, probably, shook their heads and said, 365 00:22:39,875 --> 00:22:42,565 "OK, we killed a bully. Big deal." 366 00:22:45,294 --> 00:22:47,234 There's an old saying, 367 00:22:47,331 --> 00:22:49,641 you know, "He needed killing." 368 00:22:49,747 --> 00:22:51,467 People were scared, 369 00:22:51,577 --> 00:22:54,437 and it just kept escalating, and escalating. 370 00:22:54,545 --> 00:22:56,475 And I don't know about you, 371 00:22:56,582 --> 00:22:59,142 but, you know, everyone has a limit. 372 00:22:59,239 --> 00:23:00,899 You get pushed so far, 373 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:04,040 law or not, something's gonna happen. 374 00:23:09,422 --> 00:23:12,152 Well, this is the back of the grocery store 375 00:23:12,252 --> 00:23:18,022 and the alley where Bowenkamp was shot by McElroy. 376 00:23:21,192 --> 00:23:24,232 A bad day in Skidmore's history, 377 00:23:24,333 --> 00:23:27,203 but you can't change it. 378 00:23:29,615 --> 00:23:32,505 It was on a Friday, two little girls come in. 379 00:23:32,618 --> 00:23:35,928 Now, one of them wasn't so little, she was about 14 or 15 years old, 380 00:23:36,035 --> 00:23:38,585 and then the smaller one, which was about four years old. 381 00:23:38,693 --> 00:23:42,393 The little girl had picked up two or three little pieces of candy. 382 00:23:42,490 --> 00:23:46,670 We didn't have any idea who either one of the children were. 383 00:23:46,770 --> 00:23:48,740 Ken McElroy got mad 384 00:23:48,841 --> 00:23:51,781 when they accused his children 385 00:23:51,878 --> 00:23:53,808 of stealing bubble gum. 386 00:23:53,915 --> 00:23:56,465 The lady that worked in the grocery store, 387 00:23:56,573 --> 00:23:57,993 accused my little girl 388 00:23:58,091 --> 00:23:59,991 of taking some candy, 389 00:24:00,093 --> 00:24:01,653 and raiding the store. 390 00:24:03,994 --> 00:24:06,724 She had my girl really upset. 391 00:24:06,824 --> 00:24:08,934 She was bawling when she came home. 392 00:24:09,033 --> 00:24:11,073 She was only four. 393 00:24:13,313 --> 00:24:15,183 Trena McElroy walked in, 394 00:24:15,281 --> 00:24:16,421 and Trena wanted to know 395 00:24:16,524 --> 00:24:17,974 who accused their kids... 396 00:24:18,077 --> 00:24:20,177 And I'm cleaning up the language, quite a bit. 397 00:24:20,286 --> 00:24:23,626 ...of raiding the store, and of course, no one had. 398 00:24:23,738 --> 00:24:25,978 The door opened again, 399 00:24:26,085 --> 00:24:29,605 and she said, "Well, you're about to meet Kenneth McElroy." 400 00:24:32,091 --> 00:24:34,371 I went out and tried to straighten it out, 401 00:24:34,473 --> 00:24:38,063 and she didn't want-- She wanted to have no part of it. 402 00:24:38,166 --> 00:24:41,166 That's pretty much what started the ball rolling. 403 00:24:43,896 --> 00:24:49,656 McElroy started driving past Mom and Dad's house and cruised slowly by, 404 00:24:49,764 --> 00:24:51,354 and then during the day, 405 00:24:51,455 --> 00:24:53,485 they would sit in the pickups outside the store 406 00:24:53,595 --> 00:24:55,485 and just watch the store all day. 407 00:24:55,597 --> 00:24:56,977 One day, McElroy turned up 408 00:24:57,081 --> 00:24:59,051 at the loading bay behind the store, 409 00:24:59,152 --> 00:25:01,262 where Mr. Bowenkamp was sitting, 410 00:25:01,361 --> 00:25:03,541 watching the world go by. 411 00:25:03,640 --> 00:25:06,230 He just rolled up his sleeves, like this, 412 00:25:06,332 --> 00:25:07,712 he says, "Do you want to fight?" 413 00:25:07,816 --> 00:25:10,536 I said, "I have no reason to fight." 414 00:25:10,647 --> 00:25:14,647 I turned around. Well, I was looking down a double-barrel shotgun. 415 00:25:17,274 --> 00:25:19,454 When I walked up the stairs, 416 00:25:19,552 --> 00:25:22,242 Bo was laying on the wooden floor, 417 00:25:22,348 --> 00:25:23,828 all stretched out. 418 00:25:23,936 --> 00:25:26,106 There was blood just pumping out of his neck. 419 00:25:26,214 --> 00:25:28,984 And there was a pool of blood that streamed across the floor 420 00:25:29,079 --> 00:25:30,839 probably six or eight feet. 421 00:25:30,943 --> 00:25:34,333 He was gurgling, and he was trying to tell me-- 422 00:25:34,429 --> 00:25:36,539 I know he said "McElroy." 423 00:25:57,279 --> 00:26:01,799 Shortly after the shooting, McElroy was arrested. 424 00:26:01,905 --> 00:26:05,735 He was caught by one of the troopers, down here. 425 00:26:05,840 --> 00:26:08,770 Then they put him in jail, down here 426 00:26:08,877 --> 00:26:11,087 at Savannah, overnight. 427 00:26:11,880 --> 00:26:13,640 They did take him in, 428 00:26:13,744 --> 00:26:15,754 and again, they let him go. 429 00:26:15,850 --> 00:26:17,920 He bonded out. 430 00:26:18,024 --> 00:26:20,794 The next day, McElroy was back out on the street again. 431 00:26:20,889 --> 00:26:24,509 Not only that, he was back here in the pool hall, bragging about it. 432 00:26:24,617 --> 00:26:26,447 He was still out free. 433 00:26:26,550 --> 00:26:29,040 And after, he drove into town, 434 00:26:29,139 --> 00:26:32,799 and shot a man that owned a little grocery store. 435 00:26:32,901 --> 00:26:34,451 He actually shot the man. 436 00:26:34,558 --> 00:26:38,358 And he never was put in jail for it. 437 00:26:38,458 --> 00:26:42,698 That was one of the hardest things for Skidmore to accept. 438 00:26:42,808 --> 00:26:44,738 We had grown up good people, 439 00:26:44,844 --> 00:26:46,984 believing, that if you did the right thing, 440 00:26:47,088 --> 00:26:49,058 the law would be there for you. 441 00:26:52,852 --> 00:26:56,652 But we pretty much were on our own over here. 442 00:26:58,271 --> 00:27:00,831 Miraculously, Bo survived his wounds 443 00:27:00,929 --> 00:27:02,789 and continued at the grocery store. 444 00:27:02,897 --> 00:27:07,417 But he and his family hadn't heard the last of Ken McElroy. 445 00:27:09,317 --> 00:27:12,667 After Dad got out of the hospital, it still continued. 446 00:27:12,769 --> 00:27:16,079 McElroy would be sitting in front of the store, when they left the store, 447 00:27:16,186 --> 00:27:19,706 and then he'd pull up in front of the house later and just sit there. 448 00:27:19,810 --> 00:27:22,430 Fired their shotgun into the air. 449 00:27:22,537 --> 00:27:24,947 Must have been a nightmare for you and your folks. 450 00:27:25,057 --> 00:27:27,917 Constant fear. You wake up scared, you're scared all day, 451 00:27:28,025 --> 00:27:31,855 you go to bed scared, and then you start all over again the next day. 452 00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,100 And every time 453 00:27:34,204 --> 00:27:37,484 the Nodaway County Sheriff's Department was called, 454 00:27:37,586 --> 00:27:40,306 if they came at all, it would be three days later. 455 00:27:40,417 --> 00:27:45,277 Dave Dunbar, he was the marshal when McElroy was around, 456 00:27:45,387 --> 00:27:48,247 till he quit because they started threatening him and his family. 457 00:27:48,356 --> 00:27:52,906 He goes, "Are you gonna testify in the Bowenkamp trial?" 458 00:27:53,016 --> 00:27:57,496 And I said, "Yeah, I'll be-- I'm the marshal, I was there that night. 459 00:27:57,606 --> 00:28:00,226 Sure, I'll be over there, you know, that's my job." 460 00:28:00,333 --> 00:28:03,543 And he goes, "Well, I believe in killing any son of a bitch 461 00:28:03,647 --> 00:28:07,957 that tries to put me in the pen the rest of my life." That's his exact words. 462 00:28:09,791 --> 00:28:11,521 For almost a year, 463 00:28:11,620 --> 00:28:15,560 it was just our family that had to deal with it. 464 00:28:15,659 --> 00:28:17,449 It was hell. 465 00:28:17,557 --> 00:28:21,417 Scared, every single minute of your entire life. 466 00:28:31,433 --> 00:28:34,543 A year after shooting grocer Bowenkamp, 467 00:28:34,643 --> 00:28:36,513 McElroy finally comes to trial. 468 00:28:36,611 --> 00:28:41,031 He is charged with first-degree assault with a deadly weapon. 469 00:28:41,133 --> 00:28:44,003 He faces a minimum of ten years in prison 470 00:28:44,101 --> 00:28:47,281 and possibly up to life in prison. 471 00:28:47,380 --> 00:28:49,940 His adversary was prosecutor, David Baird. 472 00:28:50,038 --> 00:28:51,968 Only three years out of law school, 473 00:28:52,075 --> 00:28:53,895 just months as prosecutor. 474 00:28:54,008 --> 00:28:55,908 Once they did that, we went to trial. 475 00:28:56,010 --> 00:28:57,940 I was probably too young and naive 476 00:28:58,046 --> 00:29:00,186 to be intimidated. 477 00:29:00,290 --> 00:29:02,150 The defense team for Mr. McElroy, 478 00:29:02,257 --> 00:29:04,977 they tried to make the argument that, somehow, 479 00:29:05,088 --> 00:29:08,468 Mr. McElroy was acting in self-defense, 480 00:29:08,574 --> 00:29:11,274 relative to Mr. Bowenkamp. 481 00:29:11,370 --> 00:29:13,440 At that time, you had David Baird 482 00:29:13,544 --> 00:29:17,834 who is a very young and inexperienced prosecutor. 483 00:29:17,928 --> 00:29:21,998 But Ken was actually found guilty of that crime. 484 00:29:22,105 --> 00:29:24,205 Ken Rex McElroy, I think I read somewhere, 485 00:29:24,314 --> 00:29:27,254 he was charged with 37 felony crimes 486 00:29:27,351 --> 00:29:30,601 and convicted of none, until the very last one, 487 00:29:30,699 --> 00:29:33,529 when he was convicted of shooting Bo Bowenkamp. 488 00:29:33,633 --> 00:29:38,473 But his attorney, filed an appeal 489 00:29:38,569 --> 00:29:41,609 and then requested of the judge 490 00:29:41,710 --> 00:29:44,710 that Ken be released on bond. 491 00:29:44,817 --> 00:29:46,467 The judge agreed, 492 00:29:46,577 --> 00:29:49,507 and there was a caravan of people from Skidmore 493 00:29:49,615 --> 00:29:52,615 that drove over to be in the courtroom. 494 00:29:52,721 --> 00:29:55,351 They drove back to Skidmore, 495 00:29:55,448 --> 00:29:59,178 and when they got back, Ken Rex was already there. 496 00:30:00,453 --> 00:30:06,013 It had to have been pretty traumatic. 497 00:30:06,114 --> 00:30:09,574 Not even probably a week after that, he was in the bar 498 00:30:09,669 --> 00:30:12,399 with an old Army rifle with a bayonet. 499 00:30:13,466 --> 00:30:17,226 You know, a fixed bayonet is-- That's war. 500 00:30:17,332 --> 00:30:20,092 You know, you don't even discuss it. 501 00:30:22,027 --> 00:30:25,817 Walking into the bar with an M1 and a fixed bayonet 502 00:30:25,927 --> 00:30:28,097 and sitting in the corner... 503 00:30:28,205 --> 00:30:31,825 You know, if I had been the marshal, at that point, 504 00:30:31,933 --> 00:30:34,143 and they called me on the phone, 505 00:30:34,246 --> 00:30:36,106 he'd have been dead. 506 00:30:36,213 --> 00:30:38,113 Because I'd walked into the bar, 507 00:30:38,215 --> 00:30:41,115 I'd walk right up to him and put a hole in him. 508 00:30:47,328 --> 00:30:50,638 I don't look at "vigilante" as a bad term, 509 00:30:50,745 --> 00:30:53,155 but I think some people do. 510 00:30:53,265 --> 00:30:57,295 It was necessary, at the time, for the situation. 511 00:30:59,098 --> 00:31:01,098 A man comes up 512 00:31:01,204 --> 00:31:03,524 and shoots your father. 513 00:31:03,620 --> 00:31:06,450 He doesn't kill him, but he shoots him. 514 00:31:08,314 --> 00:31:10,944 And his mentality was 515 00:31:11,041 --> 00:31:13,461 that he could get away with anything. 516 00:31:14,873 --> 00:31:17,083 All you can do is run. 517 00:31:18,428 --> 00:31:20,978 Cow down and get beat some more 518 00:31:21,086 --> 00:31:23,496 or stand up and fight. 519 00:31:25,400 --> 00:31:27,750 These guys around here carry 520 00:31:27,851 --> 00:31:30,681 Winchesters or Henrys, you know, saddle guns. 521 00:31:30,785 --> 00:31:32,645 They're cowboys. 522 00:31:33,753 --> 00:31:36,073 That's the way it is around here. 523 00:31:36,170 --> 00:31:38,240 Everybody's got a gun. 524 00:31:38,344 --> 00:31:40,454 You know, everybody does. 525 00:31:42,245 --> 00:31:45,515 You put things in your own hands. I know that's vigilantism. 526 00:31:45,627 --> 00:31:47,457 But you've got to take care of yourself. 527 00:31:47,560 --> 00:31:49,560 You've got to protect yourself, at times. 528 00:31:49,666 --> 00:31:52,876 That's our American gun mentality. 529 00:31:52,980 --> 00:31:54,740 And that's what the Skidmore people did. 530 00:31:54,843 --> 00:31:58,123 Was there fear that, if McElroy remained a free man, 531 00:31:58,226 --> 00:32:00,496 he would do further damage in the town? 532 00:32:00,608 --> 00:32:04,158 Yes, there was a feeling like that. 533 00:32:04,267 --> 00:32:07,677 Fear is an emotion that takes energy. 534 00:32:07,787 --> 00:32:11,857 Most tired people don't feel fear, 535 00:32:11,964 --> 00:32:15,834 except when faced with evil. 536 00:32:15,934 --> 00:32:18,214 And by all accounts, 537 00:32:18,315 --> 00:32:21,275 Ken Rex McElroy was evil. 538 00:32:21,387 --> 00:32:25,247 Anyone who doesn't understand and hasn't lived through this fear, 539 00:32:25,357 --> 00:32:28,427 just can't understand the pressure 540 00:32:28,532 --> 00:32:31,672 that has been on, the emotional strain. 541 00:32:31,777 --> 00:32:34,947 We have never, ever, as Ken said, never locked our doors. 542 00:32:35,056 --> 00:32:38,646 But now, we never go to sleep without the doors locked. 543 00:32:41,269 --> 00:32:45,379 You had people who were on-edge. 544 00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:48,860 Townspeople had lost their faith in the court system 545 00:32:48,967 --> 00:32:54,387 because Ken was found guilty but released on bond. 546 00:32:54,489 --> 00:32:57,629 These people are crying out for justice, 547 00:32:57,734 --> 00:33:00,564 they finally get justice, 548 00:33:00,668 --> 00:33:04,218 and it does no good, it has no affect. 549 00:33:05,535 --> 00:33:10,255 That was a tipping point, in that town. 550 00:33:10,367 --> 00:33:14,367 And that's why they called the town meeting. 551 00:33:14,475 --> 00:33:17,715 So, what they did was decide to get everybody into the Legion Hall 552 00:33:17,823 --> 00:33:19,623 and have a meeting, trying to figure out 553 00:33:19,721 --> 00:33:22,761 how they were going to protect themselves. 554 00:33:22,862 --> 00:33:26,762 It was a hotly-contested meeting. 555 00:33:26,866 --> 00:33:29,796 There were rumors of money changing hands 556 00:33:29,904 --> 00:33:33,114 for the death of Ken Rex McElroy. 557 00:33:33,218 --> 00:33:36,048 Oh, we heard a lot of rumors, what they was gonna do to him. 558 00:33:36,152 --> 00:33:37,772 Were you at the meeting? 559 00:33:37,877 --> 00:33:39,497 No, I was in Boulder, Colorado. 560 00:33:39,603 --> 00:33:41,993 - Were you at the meeting? - I was not there, no. 561 00:33:42,089 --> 00:33:44,369 - Were you at the meeting? - Yes, I was at the meeting. 562 00:33:44,470 --> 00:33:48,410 They don't know my husband. All they know is what they hear. 563 00:33:53,755 --> 00:33:55,895 I had my five-year-old daughter with me. 564 00:33:55,999 --> 00:33:58,479 And everybody was gathering around, you know. 565 00:33:58,588 --> 00:34:01,208 It was pretty wild and crazy and hectic 566 00:34:01,315 --> 00:34:03,795 and all kinds of emotions. 567 00:34:03,903 --> 00:34:05,773 And I thought, 568 00:34:05,871 --> 00:34:08,081 I don't need my five-year-old daughter, 569 00:34:08,184 --> 00:34:11,084 you know, around this. 570 00:34:11,187 --> 00:34:13,257 There were a hundred people. 571 00:34:13,361 --> 00:34:18,571 That's almost every adult citizen in the city of Skidmore. 572 00:34:18,677 --> 00:34:21,607 They lured him into town so they could kill him. 573 00:34:22,612 --> 00:34:26,342 The town had no choice 574 00:34:26,443 --> 00:34:29,143 because they had gotten together at the Legion building 575 00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,759 and had a meeting, and the sheriff was there. 576 00:34:32,863 --> 00:34:36,803 And the sheriff drove out of town, 577 00:34:36,902 --> 00:34:41,602 and just as he drove out of town, McElroy drove into town. 578 00:34:41,700 --> 00:34:44,080 That meeting, the morning of July 10th, in Skidmore, 579 00:34:44,185 --> 00:34:47,635 you were at that meeting, what was the mood of the place? 580 00:34:47,740 --> 00:34:50,500 They were concerned about the welfare 581 00:34:50,605 --> 00:34:53,185 of the people who had signed statements, 582 00:34:53,298 --> 00:34:56,718 uh, concerning the bond-revocation hearing. 583 00:34:56,818 --> 00:34:59,608 - And they were concerned about their safety. -Right. 584 00:35:01,478 --> 00:35:05,208 About 60 townspeople were gathered in the American Legion Hall. 585 00:35:05,310 --> 00:35:08,590 The red brick building. They were talking about what to do with the town bully. 586 00:35:08,692 --> 00:35:12,662 At about that time, Ken Rex McElroy showed up at the bar. 587 00:35:12,765 --> 00:35:16,625 They followed him inside the bar. 588 00:35:16,735 --> 00:35:20,255 And what was the atmosphere in the bar that morning? 589 00:35:22,948 --> 00:35:24,538 It was strange. 590 00:35:24,639 --> 00:35:28,679 I mean, 'cause everybody was getting free beers. 591 00:35:28,781 --> 00:35:32,821 And no way that many people would come in like that. 592 00:35:32,923 --> 00:35:35,553 It was all different. 593 00:35:36,893 --> 00:35:39,073 So were you made to feel uncomfortable in there, 594 00:35:39,171 --> 00:35:40,721 that morning? 595 00:35:40,828 --> 00:35:45,348 Yeah, we've-- We figured that they had a meeting. 596 00:35:46,316 --> 00:35:48,176 Just tell me what happened. 597 00:35:48,284 --> 00:35:52,504 We left the D&G and went to our pickup. 598 00:36:02,298 --> 00:36:03,948 As soon as we walked out the door, 599 00:36:04,058 --> 00:36:07,228 everybody else walked out the door behind us. 600 00:36:08,718 --> 00:36:12,578 My husband, he hadn't started the pickup yet. 601 00:36:12,687 --> 00:36:15,067 We were just sitting there. I looked at them, 602 00:36:15,173 --> 00:36:18,493 to see what they was looking at. See if they wanted anything, 603 00:36:18,590 --> 00:36:20,800 and they was just staring and laughing. 604 00:36:23,871 --> 00:36:25,701 It was the whole town. 605 00:36:28,255 --> 00:36:30,945 -Sixty-three. 606 00:36:31,050 --> 00:36:34,470 There may have been as many as a dozen people outside the D&G 607 00:36:34,571 --> 00:36:37,891 and around McElroy's pickup at the time of the shooting. 608 00:36:37,988 --> 00:36:41,918 Or there may have been as many as 50 or 60. 609 00:36:42,027 --> 00:36:43,477 How many bullet holes? 610 00:36:43,580 --> 00:36:46,550 That's part of the investigation that I can't tell you. 611 00:36:46,652 --> 00:36:49,452 I've heard reports there were two guns used, two weapons used. 612 00:36:49,552 --> 00:36:53,282 That is also part of the investigation, and I can't tell you. 613 00:36:53,383 --> 00:36:55,773 Do you have any suspects? 614 00:36:55,868 --> 00:36:57,938 Not at this time. 615 00:36:58,043 --> 00:37:02,123 I mean, they had nothing to work with, ballistics-wise. 616 00:37:02,220 --> 00:37:05,710 All they had was fragments from his body, 617 00:37:05,809 --> 00:37:09,879 but you couldn't pair it with a weapon because they had no weapons. 618 00:37:09,986 --> 00:37:12,056 There were three different calibers. 619 00:37:12,160 --> 00:37:14,090 So at least three people. 620 00:37:14,197 --> 00:37:17,927 Two people, I believe, shot him. 621 00:37:18,028 --> 00:37:21,478 There was probably at least three to four shooters. 622 00:37:21,584 --> 00:37:23,104 Four, in my estimation. 623 00:37:23,206 --> 00:37:24,616 Six shooters. 624 00:37:24,725 --> 00:37:26,545 Well, I think there were three. 625 00:37:29,281 --> 00:37:31,181 I know who two of them are. 626 00:37:31,283 --> 00:37:33,223 There was eyewitnesses. 627 00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:35,490 It doesn't mean they all saw it. 628 00:37:35,598 --> 00:37:37,948 It doesn't take long to go, boom, boom, boom. 629 00:37:38,048 --> 00:37:41,668 To put your gun away, just a few seconds. 630 00:37:43,226 --> 00:37:44,606 One other person 631 00:37:44,710 --> 00:37:48,060 that I was told was a shooter left town. 632 00:37:48,162 --> 00:37:51,752 Then I don't know who the third person is. 633 00:37:51,855 --> 00:37:54,885 There are some people that aren't even convinced 634 00:37:54,996 --> 00:37:58,826 it was totally from Skidmore because so many rumors abound, 635 00:37:58,931 --> 00:38:01,561 like, it was a Mafia hit and all that. 636 00:38:01,658 --> 00:38:05,248 The shooters were probably across the street, up here. 637 00:38:05,352 --> 00:38:09,492 Because the little Quonset building, 638 00:38:09,597 --> 00:38:12,667 it had some bullet holes in it. 639 00:38:14,050 --> 00:38:19,470 But nobody knows which caliber of weapon was the fatal blow. 640 00:38:19,573 --> 00:38:21,613 They never found any weapons. 641 00:38:21,713 --> 00:38:23,583 They couldn't prove anything. 642 00:38:25,095 --> 00:38:27,645 They can't even prove who's got what kind of a rifle 643 00:38:27,753 --> 00:38:31,623 because we don't... we don't register the rifles. 644 00:38:31,723 --> 00:38:35,313 And right now, we're not even registering the handguns. 645 00:38:35,416 --> 00:38:37,206 Can't find the guns. 646 00:38:37,315 --> 00:38:39,965 Not even a shell, they picked them all up. 647 00:38:40,076 --> 00:38:42,176 I can't really go into that 648 00:38:42,285 --> 00:38:44,905 because that's where the conspiracy problem is. 649 00:38:45,012 --> 00:38:49,642 But, you know, the weapons were disposed of 650 00:38:49,741 --> 00:38:51,361 in an interesting way. 651 00:38:51,467 --> 00:38:54,817 The guns was put in a van. 652 00:38:54,918 --> 00:38:57,608 If I remember the van, it might have been blue. 653 00:38:57,714 --> 00:39:01,994 They had planned where the van would be sitting. 654 00:39:02,098 --> 00:39:05,448 And they took the guns out to Cheyenne, Wyoming. 655 00:39:05,550 --> 00:39:07,690 Except one. 656 00:39:09,208 --> 00:39:10,758 And that gun was the main one, 657 00:39:10,865 --> 00:39:12,935 my brother told me, before he died. 658 00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:17,530 The main one was throwed in the river. 659 00:39:19,495 --> 00:39:22,595 I don't know if this is true or not, 660 00:39:22,705 --> 00:39:26,875 but I was told they have still got McElroy's head 661 00:39:26,985 --> 00:39:29,605 in a freezer thing, 662 00:39:29,712 --> 00:39:33,892 and that case was never closed. 663 00:39:33,992 --> 00:39:37,342 If they ever could find the shell or the gunner thing, 664 00:39:37,444 --> 00:39:41,004 then they could prove which one's gun it belonged to. 665 00:39:42,483 --> 00:39:46,903 If you try to think about it from a motive perspective, 666 00:39:47,005 --> 00:39:50,655 well, hell, everybody had a motive. 667 00:39:50,767 --> 00:39:55,287 If you start thinking about who benefits from Ken Rex McElroy's death, 668 00:39:55,393 --> 00:39:59,883 jeez, maybe everybody benefits, I don't know. 669 00:39:59,983 --> 00:40:03,373 People in small towns don't call the cops, anyway. 670 00:40:03,470 --> 00:40:06,680 They handle things themselves. 671 00:40:06,783 --> 00:40:08,963 That's a legacy that goes back 672 00:40:09,061 --> 00:40:12,691 to when this part of the country was settled. 673 00:40:13,928 --> 00:40:15,758 This town was so full of sin. 674 00:40:15,861 --> 00:40:17,451 My kids are afraid for me 675 00:40:17,553 --> 00:40:19,833 because some of them that helped 676 00:40:19,934 --> 00:40:23,844 murder McElroy, some of them are still alive. 677 00:40:23,938 --> 00:40:26,458 You better keep quiet. 678 00:40:26,562 --> 00:40:28,152 No. 679 00:40:36,054 --> 00:40:39,334 I thought it was kind of a brutal way 680 00:40:39,437 --> 00:40:42,227 of doing away with the man. 681 00:40:51,587 --> 00:40:55,727 If he needed put to death, I think the law should have done it. 682 00:41:04,358 --> 00:41:08,468 The killing of Ken Rex McElroy opened up something 683 00:41:08,569 --> 00:41:12,679 that needs to be closed. 684 00:41:14,713 --> 00:41:17,233 I think I counted nine mysterious, 685 00:41:17,336 --> 00:41:21,716 horrible, strange deaths since Ken Rex died. 686 00:41:21,824 --> 00:41:24,454 One of them was a young woman named Wendy. 687 00:41:24,551 --> 00:41:29,211 Her boyfriend attacked her and killed her, 688 00:41:29,314 --> 00:41:30,974 literally stomped her to death. 689 00:41:31,074 --> 00:41:33,424 Another young woman had a baby cut out 690 00:41:33,525 --> 00:41:35,935 and was strangled to death. 691 00:41:36,045 --> 00:41:38,875 A young man who just disappears. 692 00:41:38,979 --> 00:41:40,909 One person committed suicide with a shotgun. 693 00:41:41,015 --> 00:41:44,985 One, supposedly, committed suicide by hanging. 694 00:41:45,088 --> 00:41:47,468 It's a town of 280 people. 695 00:41:47,574 --> 00:41:50,824 It's hard to reconcile that. 696 00:41:52,544 --> 00:41:53,824 The question is, 697 00:41:53,925 --> 00:41:56,305 if Ken Rex was such a bully, 698 00:41:56,410 --> 00:41:58,070 if he was a monster, 699 00:41:58,170 --> 00:42:01,420 then why didn't the violence end with his death? 700 00:42:01,519 --> 00:42:03,559 Because it hasn't ended. 701 00:42:03,659 --> 00:42:06,419 Horror and mayhem 702 00:42:06,524 --> 00:42:08,464 have visited that town 703 00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:11,110 over and over and over again. 704 00:42:12,391 --> 00:42:14,701 Maybe they're cursed to live 705 00:42:14,808 --> 00:42:20,878 with the existence of these bad things always happening to them. 706 00:42:23,955 --> 00:42:29,815 There's no limit on murder or conspiracy. 56393

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